The author, who is white, was inspired to write these stories about her adoptive, Black daughters. Truly is a cute little Black girl whose poofs of curly hair give her magic powers. Truly saves the day in a variety of ways, encouraging her (white) friend and helping her fly, saving a cake disaster, and helping out when pets float away.
The text is, to be honest, not my favorite. It's rhyming and clunky, "If you need a hero, we'll be there right away./With my magic curls, I always save the day." It's not as heavy a font as most early readers use, but Acorn uses a lighter, finer font than most early readers. Rauscher's art is pastel and sparkly, showing a diverse group of sweet-faced children, fluffy animals, and lots of zooming rainbows and soft, green trees.
Although this may not be of the highest literary quality, it's a series I've long been waiting for and I have a lot of fans - the first to discover it being a young Black girl who wears her hair just like Princess Truly! I've often lamented that there isn't more diversity in series and filler literature, and sparkly fairy books with girls of color is exactly what we need. Now if we could just see some with Latinas and more funny books with kids of color...
Verdict: A must-have series for every library that serves beginning and transitional readers.
Revisited: Princess Truly continues to be popular and I am glad they are continuing the series. I never read past the first title, so I don't know if the literary quality improved, but it really is irrelevant for this audience. Still a must-have series.
ISBN: 9781338339987; Published 2019 by Scholastic; Purchased for the library
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